An IT worker has spent more than two years on the world's largest glass 'jigsaw puzzle' - painstakingly cutting each tiny shard by hand.

Computer programmer Chris Chamberlain, 49, gave every spare hour to piecing together 333,000 tiny squares of hand cut glass to make a detailed map of the world.

The mosaic titled 'Jewel of the Universe', even has 1,238 jewels including topaz, amethysts and sapphires to highlight cities like London, New York and Hong Kong.

Tiny pieces of the gem-stone turquoise were used to show Rivers like the Thames, Amazon, Nile, Ganges and Yangtze. Now Mr Chamberlain, from Bromley, London, hopes his artwork will be snapped up from internet auction site eBay by an art dealer where he has put it on sale for £250,000.

Computer programmer Chris Chamberlain, 49, gave every spare hour to piecing together 333,000 tiny squares of hand cut glass to make an amazing map of the world

He has spent more than two years on the world's largest glass 'jigsaw puzzle' - and put it on eBay for £250,000

The mosaic titled 'Jewel of the Universe', has 1,238 jewels including topaz, amethysts and sapphires to highlight cities like London, New York and Hong Kong

Mr Chamberlain cut all the tiny pieces of glass and jewels which laid end to end they would stretch more than two miles.

He said: 'It's my first ever artwork and it's pretty much taken over my life.

'I made it in my garage during my spare time - my wife has hardly seen me over the last couple of years.

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'I've always had an interest in art but I can't paint and I can't draw.But I can cut glass and I think I've invented a new kind of artwork which hopefully I and others can expand on.'

Tiny pieces of the gem-stone turquoise were used to show Rivers like the Thames, Amazon, Nile, Ganges and Yangtze

Each piece of glass needed to be around 20 times smaller than a normal mosaic tile to get the effect he was after. He then glued each piece one by one onto a sheet of perspex using a pair of tweezers bought from a pound shop

Chris, of Bromley, London, used NASA photographs to map out the continents, countries, cities and rivers.
It took him six months to cut each piece of by hand

Mr Chamberlain, of Bromley, London, used NASA photographs to map out the continents, countries, cities and rivers.

It took him six months to cut each piece of by hand . He also trained himself to become ambidextrous so as to avoid repetitive strain injury.

Each piece of glass needed to be around 20 times smaller than a normal mosaic tile to get the effect he was after.

Then he glued each piece one by one onto a sheet of perspex using a pair of tweezers bought from a pound shop.

Mr Chamberlain lit the piece from behind using 6912 LEDs then made a frame for the10ft X7ft 'earth mosaic' using 80,000 pieces of black stained glass.

He said: 'I can't tell you the sense of relief when the final piece of glass went in.I've loved doing it but at times it drove me mad.'

The artwork went onto eBay with a £250,000 pricetag - with the proceeds going towards projects in Sierra Leone where his wife Theodora, 57, was born.

He hopes it will end up in a museum or in the foyer of an upmarket hotel.

He said: 'Who knows Roman Abramovich may see it and like it. I'm open to offers.

'If I get just a fraction of what I'm asking on eBay then I can do it then I can make a difference to Sierra Leone.

'And the buyer is welcome to head out there with me and join in with some of the projects I'm trying to help. It might be the adventure of a lifetime.'

The artwork has been on public display at the Royal Opera Arcade in Pall Mall before going on eBay.